Cookies, Cupcakes, and Cardio

Poutine Cupcakes (French Fries in Gravy)

June 30, 2014 by Jenn

Poutine is a favorite Canadian dish that originated in Quebec, a province in Canada. It’s made with French fries, smothered in gravy and topped with large chunks of cheese curds. Being that Canada is upon us tomorrow, I thought I would make the cupcake version of it to share with all of our viewers!

The cupcake version consists of vanilla cake, and vanilla buttercream but you can choose any flavour of either for you version. In Canada we also have something called Hickory Sticks- basically they are thin slices of potato chip that look like mini fries- you can make do with slicing your own potato chips.

For the gravy that covers the fries, you can use butterscotch, or caramel, depending on what colour you want your gravy to be. As the cheese curds are usually large chunks of white cheese, I chose to use white chocolate chips, but you can use anything that is similar in colour, or shape to cheese curds.

For the video, we wanted to make sure that our viewers would be able to truly appreciate the look of poutine, so we “had” to go and get the best poutine there is in our town. We have one food truck in Cranbrook. One. It happens to be the best thing on the earth, thank goodness, and in addition to poutine, it also has fabulous burgers, and smokies. We headed down to Smokey Bro’s BBQ & Grill prior to filming, and “had” to grab two poutines!! Life is tough.

Giant American Flag Candy Bar for the 4th of July Dessert

June 28, 2014 by Jenn

The American’s are coming! The American’s are coming! My brother and his family from Minneapolis are coming! They’re “the American’s” in my world. I can wait to see them and celebrate Canada day AND the 4th of July!

Since we have family, friends and lots of viewers from the United States, I wanted to do another 4th of July video for all of them. Last year I did an American Flag surprise inside cake, so I knew topping that would be a challenge. What’s better than cake? CHOCOLATE!

In Canada we call small bars covered in chocolate “chocolate bars” but my research told me that in the States, they are called “candy bars”. They’re the same thing though. This candy bar uses my sugar cookie recipe for the crunchy base, and a chewy nougat for the top. Cover the entire thing in chocolate, and you have your own giant chocolate bar!! I found red and blue M&M’s easily (they come in the regular pack of M&M’s), but I had to order the white M&M’s off of Amazon.

I had never experimented with making candy before this recipe, so I was a little intimidated. Turns out, it’s only a lesson in patience! Watching the candy thermometer slowly climb seems as effective as watching paint dry. It takes a long time to get to 250F!! Ok, well, maybe it was only 10 minutes, but it seemed like a long time. The only caution I have is that the candy is HOT, so be careful.

Since this is a chocolate bar of sorts, I strayed away from my usual candy melts, as I wanted to have a true chocolate coating. Working with real chocolate (as opposed to the candy melts) is a little bit more tricky as the real stuff takes longer to solidify, so time in the fridge was necessary when I was shaping the sides to be vertical. Cover, swipe sides, fridge, repeat.

When you’re ready to serve your guests, slice off a piece of the candy bar, and each person will get their own American flag!

Canadian Flag Cake for Canada Day (Surprise Inside Cake)

June 22, 2014 by Jenn

“The flag is the symbol of the nation’s unity, for it, beyond any doubt, represents all the citizens of Canada without distinction of race, language, belief or opinion.” Honourable Maurice Bourget, Speaker of the Senate, 1965

In Canada we celebrate our Nation each July 1. Our Canadian flag is a very simple design . . . red panels on each side of the flag, in the middle white with a red maple leaf in the centre. I THOUGHT this would be an easy cake to make. I thought wrong. Very wrong.

After the success of our American Flag cake tutorial that we put out for the Forth of July last year (2013), I knew that this year, I HAD to make one for my country! When I started out, I thought it would be super simple, and I would find success the first time out. Not-so-much. 6 practice cakes later, I had finally nailed it, and it was ready to be filmed for YouTube stardom!

I wanted a very distinct maple leaf in the centre of the flag, and with that, I caused myself a problem. The maple leaf kept coming out of the second bake missing sections of the leaf, or looking like a red blob. I tried cutting the maple leaves out of regular cake, using cakepop mix, and I tried prebaked sugar cookies, until finally, when I had almost given up, I thought I would try freezing the section I needed for cutting the leaves out. Thankfully, it worked!

The Fault In Our Stars Pull Apart Cupcake Cake

June 20, 2014 by Jenn

I loved this book despite the fact I used up a box of tissues while reading it! If you haven’t heard of The Fault In Our Stars, you must get to the library/bookstore/iBooks now! It is a super easy read, and despite the heavy underlying storyline, it remains somewhat light and fun to read.

I heard rave reviews about the book on Amazon, but the aspect that made me want to read it the most was that it was written by a fellow YouTuber!! John Green and his brother run the channel VlogBrothers, where they are “raising nerdy to the power of awesome.” Obviously with the success of TFiOS (and his other novels) he is a New York Times Bestseller and an award winning author.

I received a TON of requests for TFiOS cake on my YouTube channel, and knowing that I couldn’t let my YT subscribers down, I had to come up with a way to make the story into a cake. At first I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to make a book cake, but it just wasn’t interesting enough. I still plan to make a book cake tutorial, but it’s on the back burner.

Being that I was constructing a cake about a serious topic (cancer), I wanted to keep it light and hopeful– no sense of pulling the tissue box out when there is cake around! I’ve been wanting to make a pull apart cupcake cake for a while, and with the black and white clouds on the cover of the book, making the pull apart cake was the perfect match!

Filming the video was slightly awkward as I couldn’t pipe the words upside down, so you’re probably going to have to turn your computer around to see me working on the piping portion of the cake. When we build our new studio, I will have to make sure we have somewhere to place the camera over my shoulder! Sorry ’bout that!

I haven’t been to see the movie yet, and I’m not sure if I will. I am always disappointed when I go to see movies that have been made from books!!! Is that bad? Or do you feel the same way? Let me know I’m not alone!!! If you haven’t read the book yet, you can get it HERE

Unicorn Barf

June 14, 2014 by Jenn

Poor poor Sparkle Toes (my Unicorn) hasn’t been feeling very well lately. She must have an upset stomach, as she has BARFED all over the place!

What the..?

Unicorn Barf?? Well, it’s got to be better than the Unicorn Poop cookies that have been making their way around the internet! Isn’t it? It’s magical, pretty, sparkly, and tastes amazing!! All of the things I would imagine unicorn barf would taste like.

Unicorns are one of those animals (unless you’re a Lululemon lover and then it’s a sought after product that can’t be found) that dominate childhood fantasies and dreams, and then one day, you wake up and never think about them again. Lucky for me, I have a (day) job that keeps me in the mindset of 5-6 year olds, and I get to hear unicorn talk all the time. I love the magical aspect of a unicorn- anything bright, sparkly and rainbow like must be magical.

After having seen 30903 versions of unicorn poop cookies on the internets, I knew I had to jump on the craze, but with a different twist. What could be as gross and unappealing as poop? It had to be barf. Finding the marshmallows was the only time consuming aspect of this recipe, as the recipe itself is very simple. I thought about buying boxes and boxes of Lucky Charms cereal and sorting out the marshmallows, but I figured someone probably had already done that for me on the internets. I love the internets. It has everything!

I was pleased to find “Charms Cereal Marshmallows” from Hoosier Hill Farms on Amazon and ordered myself 2 bags immediately. One to practice with and make the barf, and one to . . . uh, eat. Unfortunately for me, only one bag arrived so keep that in mind if you choose to order from Hoosier Hill Farms. *at the time of me writing this, Amazon has refunded my money for the second bag, and Hoosier Hill Farms has only sent me an email saying they are “sorry I filed a claim against them”. Thanks to Amazon for rectifying the situation immediately.

How to Make a Giant Gummy Bear and other Gummy Candy

June 10, 2014 by Jenn

Although I stupidly sound like this is a sponsored video, be assured that it is NOT!! I paid $29 CAN for this fun machine at *cough* WalMart *cough* . Would I admit that I shop at WalMart if I didn’t have to?

This machine looked really cool when I saw it on the shelf (thanks to Paul for pointing me to it!). I knew that if I had kids at home, I would love to hear an unbiased review of it before I committed to purchasing it. So here it is . . . it is fun, bright, and easy to use, but if you already have silicone moulds at home, or know where to find them, you can save yourself $29 and use them and the microwave.

Making gummies is super easy, all you need is gelatin, Jello and water! If you’re so inclined, so can replace the water in the mixture with fruit juice for an extra fruity flavour. I believe that the required amount of unflavoured gelatin powder creates the perfect chewiness, but if you find it too chewy, you can cut back one package. The molds that are included in the machine are for a giant gummy bear, gummy worms, gummy fish and other gummy bears.

I hope you enjoy this review and making your own gummy bears!!

Bacon Cookies for Father’s Day

June 6, 2014 by Jenn

Who doesn’t love bacon? I know the men in my life LOVE it!

Making things for my Mom and Dad is always a worthwhile endevour. I was fortunate to be raised by two people who love each other, love my brother and I, and went out of their way to support each of us as we grew into “independent” adults. My Dad has recently had a shift in his life, where he is now the care giver for my 100-in-26-days Grandma. He has given up his independence, and is her advocate, motivator, and support system while she lives out her days in the hospital. Seeing his selfless devotion to her is a true act of family.

Trying to figure out what to make for him, who is currently running on empty, was difficult as I finally had to accept the fact that he doesn’t like sweets. My dad has said that statement so many times- and I ignore it. Usually. But this time, I knew I had to make something that was for him (not for me the baker) and that’s where bacon comes in.

I’ve been making this sugar cookie recipe since I was a teenager, and I know that this sugar cookie recipe is the perfect amount of “non-sweet” that he likes.

Thank you Dad for doing everything you do for our family! Happy Father’s Day.

Cotton Candy Cupcakes

May 31, 2014 by Jenn

I’m not a huge lover of the taste of cotton candy, but I love the smell, the look and idea of it. If I could find a way to cover the spun sugar in chocolate, well then I’d be in love!

What I do like are the soft pastel colours that end up in a fluffy mound on the end of the cone. It always reminds me of the way I think clouds would look and feel if you could see them up close. I had always wondered how cotton candy was made, and if you have the same wonder, make sure you check out my previous post (and video) on exactly how you can do it at home.

For the cotton candy flavouring of these cupcakes, I used the cotton candy that I made with my cotton candy machine, and for extra flavouring, I used LorAnn Gourmet flavouring, which I bought through Golda’s Kitchen. If you want a strong cotton candy taste, you will want to use a larger amount than what my recipe requires. I was being cautious with the amount that I put in, but feel free to add however much you want to.

If you are going to be making these cupcakes and the mini cotton candy toppers, make sure that you make the mini cones immediately prior to serving your cupcakes. The cotton candy does not stay “flossed” for long.